


Alone in the Aftermath

by Rinari7



Series: Koreth and Vera [6]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Charr (Guild Wars), F/M, Gen, Mentions of Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2019-01-09 16:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12280668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinari7/pseuds/Rinari7
Summary: Vera's getting too sentimental.





	Alone in the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Merva and Tyr are not mine; they belong to their respective players.

The last shot echoed off the walls of the arena as Vera walked up the ramp.

 _Good riddance to a horrible soldier._  And she truly was glad that she wouldn't have Tyr fighting at her side—assuming that at this point the legionnaire even remembered she had applied to join the warband.

“ _Merva was the last in a long line of females. She shouldn't be so arrogant as to think she was anything more than convenient at the time.”_  
" _Maybe someone's jealous?” A random voice from the stands._  
No, she hadn't been jealous. Not at all. Merva was an idiot, and Tyr, too. Look where it had gotten them. He was dead, killed after a humiliating “fight” in the Bane, and she was miserable. Vera was alive and well. Well, doing decently, anyways. Not considering that yet another drunken gladium had stumbled over her in the middle of the night and vomited all over her stuff.

She'd probably take tomorrow off. Whatever “taking the day off” meant. Just not show up to grab messages. There'd be another courier more than happy to grab the extra coin. Not like she needed the coin—the Order had promised to keep her in comforts, if necessary, but she couldn't let that show. She was supposed to be a penniless gladium.

Shaking her head to clear it, she headed out towards Ashford. The kitchens needed three more cows from Tolona Ironrustler, and the scrapyard was overdue on sending someone over with a cartload of metal for the smelter, and an extra Blood warband could be sent out if Deepmind or Quicktemper needed reinforcements on Barradin's estate. And after that, she headed out to that one overhang deep in the woods behind Exterminatus HQ and enjoyed the silence.

Here, with dusk falling over the forest and the lightning bugs just beginning to glow and the deer bedding themselves down in the bramble for the night, she could be alone with her thoughts.  _And maybe admit the things I wouldn't say anywhere else._

 _Damn._ She obviously had issues—well, more than usual—if thoughts like that were surfacing. Letting her legs hang over the edge of the overhang, she sighed. “Fine. I'm not happy the guy is dead because now I have no friends in the Citadel, again.”  _And I'm ashamed I even associated with him and grew to like him, maybe a little, just because he was usually nice to me. “Associated” in all its connotations there._  She regretted bunking with Tyr more than with any anonymous gladium, simply because she knew just how much of an idiot he was.

“So I've had multiple partners, so what. Everyone who has a problem with that is an idiot.” And she remembered the way Rajjen used to glare at Koreth, after it came out that he had given her her first cubs, and before she started to crawl into Rajjen's bunk at night as well as Koreth's. He still glared at Koreth afterwards, sometimes, when he thought she wasn't looking, but remained professional. And Koreth didn't say a word when her second litter was obviously Rajjen's.

“Fine, Rajjen wasn't an idiot. Tyr was an idiot for disobeying orders, and not knowing what the hell he actually wanted before he went after it, and not stopping for a second to think.”

Her thoughts wandered. Her next heat was due soon, and she grimaced. She didn't want to be in the Gladium Canton for that, irritable herself, desperately craving a mating and fending off all the idiots whose cubs she definitely didn't want. She'd definitely take that week off.

 _I'm glad it wasn't earlier, with that hormone-driven mess around._  He would have been just good and nice and seductive and persuasive enough— _enough like Koreth_ flashed through her mind—to tempt her, and he was enough of an idiot for her to hate herself for it later. With a sigh, she leaned back and let her mind wander, scenes with the black-striped white tiger flitting across her consciousness. It was her own sort of homage.

There weren't many. They hadn't known each other long. Mostly drinking together, talking about females, the warband, or... there was that time they talked about their pasts. Sitting in the ruins, her telling him off for being an idiot—although Anrak and everyone involved in that stupid situation with Merva had a part of the blame. That one night—she smiled at the thought, a pleasant shudder going through her body—and then the small whatever-it-was, call it a fight if you want, afterwards.

She had maybe overreacted. He had reminded her of Koreth, and she had lashed out.

 _Koreth is my weakness._  She hung her head.  _I hate sentimentality. I will conquer this._  She suddenly doubted her abilities, though. “Rajjen had a weakness. I was his weakness. And he never let it affect his duties, or his behavior. He was a good soldier, and a good legionnaire, and I will do better. I will not even let anyone notice this affects me.”

It sounded good in her ears, at least. Said out loud, with determination.

Her ears twitched, and she sighed. Her next thoughts she did not dare say out loud.  _I will never be as good as Rajjen. He did not need poison to keep Kirana in check._  Vera sat up again, her claws clenching and unclenching. “She would have destroyed the warband. She was never a tactician, never leader material, should never have been in Ash to begin with, except that Rajjen made it work.” Her voice softened. “Rajjen made everything work that shouldn't have worked.” And that was when she knew she had had a soft spot, somewhere, for Rajjen, too.

Growling, she stood up. She was falling. She was falling, failing, becoming weak, and she didn't know how to stop herself. Tyr's death shouldn't have affected her so that she needed to come out here and be alone.

He was the easy scapegoat—blaming Tyr as a corrupting influence would be easy. But she knew that wasn't it. She didn't know what it was, didn't know how to find out, but she knew she had to stop it, somehow.

In her new warband, she'd be the model soldier. Be more like Koreth. She'd heard he had become legionnaire sometime during her stint in Lion's Arch. As she swung her legs back up over the edge and moved to climb back down, she let out a long breath and wished for a fleeting moment that he were here.


End file.
